A Look at the Mysterious Black Box

A Look at the Mysterious 'Black Box' [Airplanes]

from Gizmodo by Mark Wilson

Any time a plane goes down, the black box recorder, once again, becomes a mythical machine whispered about in the back alleys of news broadcasts. So Wired assembled a technological rundown on the device.

As many of you know, the steel or titanium black box is actually painted orange or red so it's easy to spot. And it's often actually two boxes (and in this case, one's a cylinder), with one "box" recording voice, one "box" recording data.

The voice recorder grabs two hours of audio feeds from pilot headsets and in-cockpit microphones. In recent years, it's gotten a digital upgrade that's less susceptible to environmental problems than tapes of yore.

The Flight Data Recorder (FDR) records measurements on about 88 different flight performance issues at an interval of once every few seconds. When the shit hits the fan (or, in some cases, the plane), the FDR records measurements at a faster rate.

But even with as neat as the black box may be from the standpoint of apocalyptic durability, it seems like a dated idea in an era when realtime wireless communication is available globally. [Wired and Getty]

Two Pairs of Socks?

Two Pairs of Socks?

via Morton Missions by Morton on 2/26/09

Being shocked by my own materialism and greed is a fairly common feeling for me while serving on the mission field. Earlier this evening I was meeting with the house parents of the children's home. We were discussing the needs of each of the children. School has just begun so we were reviewing things like bookbags and paper. Eventually we got to the topic of clothing and shoes for the kids. I was asking about socks. Mario (the house "tio"- meaning uncle) told me that each child has one pair of socks and that it was very difficult to wash the socks each night and get them dry for the next day. I asked how many pairs he would like for each child to have. He responded, "two pairs." In my mind, I was thinking maybe two or three additional pairs, because children often ruin things like socks. After his response, I felt ashamed of the dozen pair of socks I brought with me from the states and even more ashamed of the two dozen pairs I left in a bag in the states.

Throughout conversations with friends we have made and the children in the home, I have felt an overwhelming appreciation for the way that I grew up. While this lesson may be one I have learned a thousand times already, tonight it is especially affecting me. I hope that we can each learn to live with appreciation for all that the Lord has given us and to live in such a way to give as much as we can to help those who have less than ourselves.

Continue to keep the children in the home in your prayers. I have a few specific prayer requests:

1. For Miguel Amado- he is missing his parents as he has only been in the children's home a few weeks. While his home circumstances were awful, that does not keep him from missing the only family he has known.

2. For Cristina- she is having some problems with coughing and asthma-related illness.

3. For Najeyli- she has several parasite and skin problems stemming from her life before arriving in the home.

4. For the beginning of school- pray that each of the children would have a good school year this coming year.

May the Lord bless you and your home with His peace,

Sara